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Two members of Pussy Riot, Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, in the glass cage in the Moscow courtroom on Friday AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev

Pussy Riot will not ask Putin for pardon: lawyer

The three women told their lawyer: “Let them go to hell with their pardon”.

THE THREE MEMBERS of punk band Pussy Riot sentenced to two years in prison for performing an anti-Vladimir Putin song in Russia’s top church will not ask the president for a pardon, their lawyer said today.

“Our clients will not ask for a pardon,” defence lawyer Nikolai Polozov told AFP today, adding: “Literally this is what they said: ‘Let them go to hell with their pardon’.”

Band members Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich on Friday were each found guilty of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” for their protest on 21 February in the Christ the Saviour Cathedral and handed two-year jail terms.

The West decried the sentencing, with the United States saying it was “disproportionate” and the European Union calling the punishment excessive.

Polozov said the defence team planned to appeal as soon as they received a copy of the verdict.

Read: Pussy Riot trial reaction: band members’ conviction criticised by EU, US >

Read: Pussy Riot members sentenced to two years in prison >

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    Aug 8th 2015, 8:48 AM

    I reckon twas Dinny OB… “please don’t sue me !”

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    Aug 8th 2015, 8:59 AM

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    Aug 8th 2015, 5:35 PM

    Heist worth $500 Million. Largest art heist in history. Journal got it wrong.

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    Aug 8th 2015, 10:43 AM

    25 years to find a video from 24 hours prior to the robbery?? Odd case all round

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    Aug 8th 2015, 10:40 AM

    I can see a ghost in the empty Rembrandt frame.

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